1 a vizier's daughter - Hazara.net

178
A VIZIER’S DAUGHTER – A TALE OF THE HAZARA WAR
“Quite true, mother,” the girl said quietly. “I don’t suppose any one
would deny that; but what did he want you for? Why did he ask you to
his house?”
“Oh, I think he wanted to show me how he lived – his fine rooms, his
bedding, his Russian tea-service, as he calls it, and his servants and
household generally. He seemed very much pleased with himself, and
anxious, I think, that you should know about it. Perhaps he thinks it
may make you anxious to return to him.” The girl shivered. “He said
so, in fact, or as good as said so. ‘Look here, mother,’ he said, ‘I have
a home here for Gul Begum. If she will but return, I am still waiting to
receive her, in spite of the cruelt y with which she has treated me, but
she must get her freedom from her master, now, at once. Mind, I am
not going to wait long. If she does not come to me soon, I will find
means of making her, and those means, I can tell you, won’t be
particularly agreeab le to her, I should imagine. I know how I can get
her, no matter how high the position of the official who owns her. This
is a country where a man, who is willing to help a neighbour to rid
himself of an enemy, can easily make powerful friends, and I know Gul
Begum’s master’s enemies. The y are good pay masters, too, and not
over scrupulous. They have many agents throughout the country, and
spies in nearly every household – women as well as men. Let the Chief
Secretar y beware. If Gul Begum is only to be had by accomplishing her
master’s downfall, then he must fall. That is no concern of mine. What
I want is the wife that I have chosen, and I mean to have her. Let her
come to me of her own accord, and I will receive her and give her a
place of honour. Let her give me the trouble and danger of forcing her,
and when I have got her in my power’ – his face turned ashy pale when
he said this, Gul Begum – ‘let her give me the trouble and danger of
forcing her, and I will tear her to pieces, limb from limb, when I have
got her. And the getting of her will not be so hard. I am not talking of
what has not been done before, and of what I have not planned. If you
have any influence with your daughter, warn her; before long it will be
too late and beyond my power to stop.”
“But, mother, what can that jackal do to hurt my master? Agha stands
far above him and out of his reach, like a very elephant in the forest.”
“True, my daughter, true, but your elephant is sick and wounded, and
he has lost much of his power. It then becomes your jackal’s business
to lead his master, the tiger, to find a supper, and what avail size, and a
strength that has vanished, when the tiger’s claws are deep in his
stricken foe? That is the true position, girl. This jackal can do little
enough himself, but he has powerful masters who know how to strike,
and where. It seems to me quite clear that to secure your own position,
you must make some sort of effort somewhere.”
“Mother, that man has been deceiving you,” the girl said quietly. “He
would like to get me in his power that he may crush me, that he may
tear me limb from limb as he has said. It he can get me easily b y my